Coding Horror

Jesus, 10 min of my life wasted and I have no one to blame, I am a tit..!

if (pts < pts-buffer)

Korvanica wrote: »

string[] SupervisorArray = new string[1];
int i = -1;

while (RS2.Read())
{
    i++;
    SupervisorArray[i] = RS2["SignedByEmplNo"].ToString();
}

:eek:
Worst piece of coding i've seen in a long time.

Here's a loop-unrolled optimised version

RS2.Read();
string Supervisor = RS2["SignedByEmplNo"].ToString();
if(RS2.Read())
  throw new ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException("YAAAAY!!!!");

Boards.ie: Paddy wrote: »

Thought I'd share a real beauty from the boards codebase. This was one of the first things I read when I was taking over from Conor. I'm yet to understand how anyone could ever have thought that this was a good idea:

/**
* Essentially a wrapper for the ternary operator.
*
* @deprecated	Deprecated as of 3.5. Use the ternary operator.
*
* @param	string	Expression to be evaluated
* @param	mixed	Return this if the expression evaluates to true
* @param	mixed	Return this if the expression evaluates to false
*
* @return	mixed	Either the second or third parameter of this function
*/
function iif($expression, $returntrue, $returnfalse = '')
{
	return ($expression ? $returntrue : $returnfalse);
}

I guess some people just find ternary operators too confusing?

Looks like a VB programmer, almost exact same parameter names even http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/27ydhh0d%28v=vs.90%29.aspx

Not exactly coding horror, but I'm working on something in C# and Visual Studio 2010. So...

string[] infoSplits = [I]**some initialisation here**[/I]

for (int secondaryIndex = 5; secondaryIndex < infoSplits.Length; secondaryIndex++)
[B]{[/B]
   string[] moreInfoSplits = infoSplits[secondaryIndex].Split('|');

Don't worry too much about code itself or the variable names; they make sense to me.

Anyway, I just spent the last 30 minutes wondering why secondaryIndex would jump from 5 to 13 in between the for-loop declaration and the moreInfoSplits[] declaration. Where the curly bracket is.

For a while I thought I was going mad. Every time I went across those three lines it would change. Over and over and over again, without fail. Well it turned out that I had a conditional breakpoint set at that bracket. I had the condition set as:

secondaryIndex = 13

Instead of:

secondaryIndex == 13

Sometimes I'm an absolute dumbass. At least I'm not insane.

Giblet wrote: »

Another reason why

13 == secondaryIndex

is the master syntax

I dunno, it just looks bad to me. I think it ruins the flow when reading it. Also any decent compiler will warn you about it (c++ anyway).

i'm a fan of doing

const int kSomeMagicNumber = 13;

then doing "if (kSomeMagicNumber = 13) " should throw up a compiler error

Is there a particular reason why there are so many variants of SQL, and why there are so many application-specific addendums? Was someone offering a bounty on these things in the 90's?

"Syntax error on subquery"
*searches for syntax guide for this particular variant, comes up with nothing*

Imagine it making it into production code on a falsey value which because truthy. You'd lose more than 5 mins. Anyway, you wouldn't use magic numbers, just comparisons against values that cannot be assigned to. (consts etc)

lowlifer wrote: »

I like to think it wouldn't, I test all my work meticulously; we also have internal standards about magic numbers and values that *should* keep us from getting in this situation.

No such thing as meticulous testing, doesn't exist or is a fairy tale. Anyway arguing about syntax is low hanging fruit, it's what every tom dick and harry coder can argue about. The real issues are the ones to be solved, and this is one of them.

DublinWriter wrote: »

They employed the original Big-6 consultancy to come in and code the work - essentially a SQL-statement piped out to a text file.

The invoice came in last week for the work - €32,000. I kid you not.

Ouch. Nice work when you can get it... :pac:

How much do those "Big 6" charge for an hour?

I hope the invoice was given before implementing.

k.p.h wrote: »

The Big 6 ..??? Could someone clarify/identify ..? Through PM if necessary.?

I think they are talking about 6 of the bigger consultancy firms. Delloitte and Accenture being 2 of them afaik. A lot of them do accountancy/audit etc type work.